Kalil Konat\u00e9, Minister of Commerce, Industry, and Crafts, has reaffirmed his determination to make the merchant card fully operational by June 30, 2026. He views it as a central tool for the restructuring, modernization, and governance of the commercial sector in C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This ambition was reiterated on Tuesday, March 3, 2026, during a meeting with a delegation from the Union of Pagne and Textile Merchants of C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire (UCOPACI), led by its president, Mamadou Baradji. The discussions provided an opportunity to examine the major challenges facing the textile sector, which is grappling with the persistence of the informal economy, fraud, unfair competition from imported products, and intense pressure from certain international brands on the local market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In light of these challenges, UCOPACI officials requested increased support from the ministry to reform and sustainably organize the sector. They also announced that a training session on the regulations governing commercial activity would soon be held, in collaboration with the relevant agencies, notably the Competition Directorate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The discussions also highlighted the low level of participation among merchants in the merchant card program and the need to strengthen collaboration with local government agencies. According to the minister, identifying and organizing stakeholders is essential to the effectiveness of public policy. Together, we will tackle head-on the project to effectively implement the merchant card program. \u201cWhen you are organized and identified, you have the right to demand services from the government,\u201d he emphasized, calling on all merchants, across all sectors, to fully embrace this tool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For Minister Kalil Konat\u00e9, the merchant card is a strategic governance tool and a lever for modernizing the commercial sector. \u201cWhen we are entrusted with managing a sector, the key factor is knowing how many stakeholders there are. The card will give us greater visibility and enable us to provide tailored technical assistance,\u201d he emphasized, noting that the revenue generated from issuing this card will help step up the fight against unfair competition, strengthen mechanisms to protect economic actors, and support initiatives to promote commerce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Established in 1997 and strengthened by the decree of June 12, 2024, issued under the authority of President Alassane Ouattara, the merchant card is set to become a key tool for providing technical support and strategic guidance to the national retail sector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As part of this effort, broad-based meetings with merchants\u2019 umbrella organizations will be held in the coming weeks to accelerate the implementation of the program. The goal is clear: to make the merchant card a fully operational tool that supports a more structured, more equitable, and resolutely modernized Ivorian commerce sector.<\/p>\n\n\nngg_shortcode_0_placeholder\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Kalil Konat\u00e9, Minister of Commerce, Industry, and Crafts, has reaffirmed his determination to make the merchant card fully operational by June 30, 2026. He views it as a central tool for the restructuring, modernization, and governance of the commercial sector in C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire. This ambition was reiterated on Tuesday, March 3, 2026, during a meeting with a delegation from the Union of Pagne and Textile Merchants of C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire (UCOPACI), led by its president, Mamadou Baradji. The discussions provided an opportunity to examine the major challenges facing the textile sector, which is grappling with the persistence of the informal economy, fraud, unfair competition from imported products, and intense pressure from certain international brands on the local market. In light of these challenges, UCOPACI officials requested increased support from the ministry to reform and sustainably organize the sector. They also announced that a training session on the regulations governing commercial activity would soon be held, in collaboration with the relevant agencies, notably the Competition Directorate. The discussions also highlighted the low level of participation among merchants in the merchant card program and the need to strengthen collaboration with local government agencies. According to the minister, identifying and organizing stakeholders is essential to the effectiveness of public policy. Together, we will tackle head-on the project to effectively implement the merchant card program. \u201cWhen you are organized and identified, you have the right to demand services from the government,\u201d he emphasized, calling on all merchants, across all sectors, to fully embrace this tool. For Minister Kalil Konat\u00e9, the merchant card is a strategic governance tool and a lever for modernizing the commercial sector. \u201cWhen we are entrusted with managing a sector, the key factor is knowing how many stakeholders there are. The card will give us greater visibility and enable us to provide tailored technical assistance,\u201d he emphasized, noting that the revenue generated from issuing this card will help step up the fight against unfair competition, strengthen mechanisms to protect economic actors, and support initiatives to promote commerce. Established in 1997 and strengthened by the decree of June 12, 2024, issued under the authority of President Alassane Ouattara, the merchant card is set to become a key tool for providing technical support and strategic guidance to the national retail sector. As part of this effort, broad-based meetings with merchants\u2019 umbrella organizations will be held in the coming weeks to accelerate the implementation of the program. The goal is clear: to make the merchant card a fully operational tool that supports a more structured, more equitable, and resolutely modernized Ivorian commerce sector.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":10249,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[154],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gucecotedivoire.ci\/pwic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gucecotedivoire.ci\/pwic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gucecotedivoire.ci\/pwic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gucecotedivoire.ci\/pwic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gucecotedivoire.ci\/pwic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10251"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.gucecotedivoire.ci\/pwic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10251\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10283,"href":"https:\/\/www.gucecotedivoire.ci\/pwic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10251\/revisions\/10283"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gucecotedivoire.ci\/pwic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gucecotedivoire.ci\/pwic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gucecotedivoire.ci\/pwic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gucecotedivoire.ci\/pwic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}